Best PC Gaming Deals Of The Week

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Welcome to another week’s worth of deals and offers, as spotted by me over at Jelly Deals. If you’re not planning on being utterly distracted by No Man’s Sky this weekend, you may want to cast your eyes over some of these deals and see if anything strikes your fancy.

UK Deals

The other trade-based space exploration game that released this year, Stellaris, is a wonderfully tactical strategy game. Just read Adam’s review. It’s also mostly held onto its £35 price point since launch. However, over at Zavvi, you can pick up a boxed version of the game for £24.99 at the moment, which is currently the cheapest way to get a copy. The code in the box will redeem through Steam anyway.

The HD remastered version of one of (arguably) the most influential video games of the last fifteen years is available to buy on PC for £5.99, currently. Whether you’re a newcomer to the Resi series or you’re a veteran who feels the need to dig back in and play through this one more time, Resident Evil 4 HD at under half price is hard not to recommend.

Indie PC hack and slasher Slain may have had what we will gently refer to as a ‘troubled launch’ back in March, but the developers responded to the harsh criticism by taking a second look at the game themselves. After a few months of fixes, improvements and changes, Slain: Back From Hell was released to Steam, a new and improved version of the game that received a much more favourable reception. Green Man Gaming have slashed the price of this one down to £5.57 currently. Was the ‘fixed’ version of the game worth the wait?

If, somehow, you don’t already own a copy of Spelunky for PC, you should fix that right now. Fortunately, while a copy of the game on Steam itself may currently have a price tag of £10.99 / $14.99, GOG.com are offering the game up for just £2.29 / $2.99.That’s a DRM-free copy of the game too, as you would expect from GOG. Since Spelunky is easily worth the full price, this one is just a bit of a steal.

US Deals

This mini-profile GeForce 1060 6GB from EVGA is currently being offered up on NewEgg for $249.99, but you can get a discount on that if you check out with a VISA and use the code VCOGOLD16 on checkout. This means you will end up paying a total cost of $240.

Alternatively, a Radeon card might be more your speed. NewEgg are also offering up this MSI Radeon R9 390 8GB graphics card for $275, though by jumping through a few hoops, this card will only cost you $240. Firstly, as above, checkout using a VISA and enter the code VCOGOLD16 at checkout, and this will knock $15 off the price right away. After that, you can grab a $20 rebate from purchasing the card and get your remaining cash back.

Unless you’re planning on picking up one of the freakishly expensive Xbox Elite Controllers, the new-style Xbox One controller (featuring Bluetooth) is your best bet for a standardised PC controller. The cheapest way to get one of these right now is to head over to NewEgg and enter the code EMCEMFE28 during checkout. That’ll bring the price down to a total of $45.

There seem to have been a lot of deals or price cuts going on for UltraWide monitors lately. They may or may not have become the latest “thing” in PC building. On that note, though, right now you can pick up this 34 inch LG 21:9 UltraWide IPS monitor for $335 when you use the code BCD16794508 at checkout. The same model is currently on Amazon for $400, so you’re saving a fair chunk of cash this way.

Because some people will need (or want) as much storage space as is physically possible, even if the number itself is a little ridiculous, you can purchase this 8TB external hard drive over at eBay right now, with $100 off. That makes this drive cost a total of $190, which isn’t bad considering the amount of storage in this little box.

Please keep in mind that all deals, stock levels and prices can change at any time, so apologies if that happens on something you like. As always, I’ll be over at Jelly Deals, keeping my eyes peeled for more deals, but you can keep up to date with us by following us on Twitter or Facebook. See you next week!

The Steam controller looks horribly small and uncomfortable, and basically can’t work out of the box with older games or ones that aren’t made to be specifically compatible. Much better to use a PS3/4 controller and the SCP Toolkit.

Well, great. Thanks for your guess. You’ve looked at a picture of a controller and decided it looks small and uncomfortable – although you sadly shot yourself in the foot later when you recommended the PS3 controller instead, which is far smaller and far less comfortable!

It’s not only large (I have large, albeit slender, hands), but it’s the first pad I’ve used where I’m instantly comfortable with my forefingers on the shoulders and my middle fingers on the triggers. But it certainly is an ugly pad!

“…and basically can’t work out of the box with older games or ones that aren’t made to be specifically compatible.”

At the risk of sounding pedantic, the complete opposite is true. It does usually basically work immediately with older titles. Case in point, today I fired up Anachronox and – hey – the Steam controller basically worked! (In order to perfect the experience, however, I hit the Steam button and assigned F1 Double-Click Right Pad. After that insanely nightmarish 20-second chore, everything came up Milhouse.)

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not recommending the Steam controller unless you’re a serious gamer. Indeed, I still generally prefer my 360 pad in most “pad” games (I have many just lying around! Just busted another new spare out of its box last week when I finally wore out a stick on Old Blacky), and I’ve got my DS3 and DS4 for when I prefer them, too – the DS3 in particular, with its small size and Bluetooth, works well as a travel controller, IMO (although neither the DS3 nor DS4 are kerfuffle-free – they’re definitely closer to the Steam controller than an Xbox pad for hassle!). Wow, that was a long sentence.

Sadly, I cannot contribute an informed opinion on the Xbox One controller as I have yet to use one. But, as you didn’t let that stop your ignorant comments, I’ll give it a go just this once…

Well from what I’ve seen, the Xbox One controller looks too heavy, needing two people just to lift it. The vibrating triggers look like they can also cause heart attacks, and the “X” button surely regularly shoots spikes into people’s eyes. Much better to use a USB-MIDI cable and the Rock Band Keytar.

Steam controller’s fat; It can be uncomfortable since it’s really designed to be sat on your lap more than anything.
Either way I am picking up that Xbox controller as a second controller because, just like you, no 2nd player want’s to use the steam controller.

I can’t really stand either of the two current patterns. XBox has the dpad inconveniently placed for games that work better with dpad (emulated stuff, most 2d platformers), while the PS controller has the analog inconveniently placed for anything else.

I know there are people out there who disagree entirely and will argue incessantly that their preference is the right one and everyone else has weirdly shaped hands or something, but that’s how it is to me.

I also have a problem with the whole concept of dual-analog FPSs. It is such an inferior control scheme I am forced to wonder how console gamers put up with it. I preferred it when console games just adapted their gameplay to auto-aim, hold-to-aim, and/or lock-on aiming. Still inferior to mouse and keyboard, but much more natural than dual-analog. The wii-mote offered a better way yet, almost as good as m+k, but has its own drawbacks.

Personally, I’d love to see a return of the much maligned “3-handed” scheme of the N64 controller. It was about perfect for me. It had the option of an analog stick that was comfortably and naturally placed, or a dpad that was comfortably and naturally placed, just by changing how you held it. It had six face buttons, ideal for fighting games, that doubled as a 2+4 combo to take the place of a second dpad for robotron-style schemes or inventory management. It could maybe use another of each shoulder-pad/trigger, the c-buttons could have felt better, and the analog stick needed some mechanical improvement, but I really liked it. Of course, nearly everyone else on earth disagrees, so I don’t expect I’ll ever see a new generation of “3-handers”.

I’ll just stick to my old trusty console->usb adapters and using the appropriate console controllers. It makes me feel like I’m one of those people with an elaborate entertainment center setup that requires 8 different “universal” remotes, but whatever. Maybe someday we’ll invent tactile holography and the whole thing will be moot.

Dual analog is indeed pretty terrible for playing FPSes on, but it’s more logical and functional than the weird schemes console FPSes used previously. Besides, as the presumed owner of a gaming PC, you are a lucky soul who has no need to bother with it. There are certainly a few poor benighted shooters of yesteryear that never came out on PC, but most of them also were on systems that aren’t fully (/at all) emulated yet and frankly most of them aren’t particularly worth putting up with dual analog etc to experience, with the possible exception of The Darkness.

I mean, I wouldn’t turn down a proper port of the Master Chief Collection. But I also wouldn’t play it on console, so.

“I can’t really stand either of the two current patterns. XBox has the dpad inconveniently placed for games that work better with dpad (emulated stuff, most 2d platformers), while the PS controller has the analog inconveniently placed for anything else.”

Yeah, I noticed that, I bought a used Xbox 360 controller to play MAME games on my laptop without breaking the keyboard AGAIN, but apart from stuff that worked well with analog sticks like Space Harrier it was only a recipe for a sore thumb, and let’s not talk about Super Metroid and Guacamelee, but it was awesome for Dark Souls.
Hell I found the thing basically unusable for MAME fighting games to the point I bought an arcade stick which is much easier on my fingers, trying to make quarter/half/full circle moves with the Xbox 360 d-pad became painful quickly, I wonder why it’s like that, the old mega drive d-pad was much more comfortable.

Oo I wouldn’t want to go back to the n64 controller. Having an analogue stick dedicated to camera control is the main benefit of dual analog IMO, as I only really use my 360 controller for some third person ports and gamecube/ps2 emulation.

Also in games that involve vehicles I do like having analog triggers for accelerate/decelerate and a stick available for either camera control or any extra movement axes like roll if flying.

I’ve never seen a fps port that required a controller, mouse and keyboard for those, HOTAS and pedals for sims and a Wii classic controller connected via Wii remote’s Bluetooth for anything requiring a lot of d-pad accuracy…good to have options!

I do use it for 2D games without issue, most contemporary 2D products seem to incorporate mechanics that benefit from an analogue stick, like different movement speeds or 360′ aiming of some sort.

Technically it didn’t, but the mouse control was, like the rest of the game, ported with ridiculous incompetence. It was eventually fixed by fan patches, I hear. To this day I will not buy or play any game from that studio because of it.

The impressions I’ve read of Steam controllers are *so* mixed that it’s like Valve are shipping completely redesigned controllers every few months. The other thing that’s keeping me from getting one is my flashbacks to the hours lost messing about in Joy2Key to get a new game to be playable. Don’t wanna risk it, so I’ll stick with the tried & tested.

Honestly, the idea of a touchpad for aiming is very compelling simply for one reason : Dead Trigger 1 for ios/android. Just move the firing button to the left side of the screen and you get one of the best control schemes in any console, touch-driven or gamepad based…

The right area of the screen is aiming only, no need to lift your finger to shoot, and it works brilliantly, I’ve yet to play a gamepad shooter with half as much feel… Also, with the shoot button hovering in the move area, you can actually circle strafe and shoot/retreat at the same time by swiping down on the button, there’s just so much potential… It’s a shame the default control scheme is the same old aim – find fire button – fire – repeat.

The steam controller is the closest thing to this setup, I believe it can be adjusted into a perfect FPS gamepad…

Personal choice is just that, but I always found the xbox 360 controllers to be pretty solid pieces of kit, and well supported. I’ve had a wired xbox 360 controller for ages now, and I still break it out for games like dark souls, GTA and the like (I’d really just opt for the last gen one if you can though, I see no point paying more for what is essentially the same thing).

It has been that way for a while, and I don’t think it is just a quirk of the market. I suspect they are putting disks with known defects in these things, defects that are less likely to be noticed over a slower USB 2.0 connection and under external drive use-cases. I can’t prove anything, of course.

That hard drive deal looks pretty iffy, only because it’s Seagate. Their drives consistently come in dead last in reliability studies, and I’ve personally had two fail (and never a single failure from WD, Samsung, or Intel). I wouldn’t touch Seagate with a barge pole, and I always strongly counsel others to take the same approach.

I lose track of which companies are making iffy hard drives each year, because the quality of everyone seems to shift vastly every two or three years.

Maxtor was one of the best, and only a few years later they were selling garbage drives that were defective out of the box. WD was one of the worst, then in a few years it was one of the best, then it was back down to middle. Seagate had been both terrible and good. The same with Intel.